Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure Archived under the wrong name by a collector in 1970, the film had rested in an archive storage cell for almost 30 years when it was finally identified as one of John Ford’s lost films. Harry Carey acted in this Western love story which has now been digitally restored. It was a major hit back in its day, because of the furious horse ride through the streets of New York and because of the big fight at the end. « Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure », A Journey of Discovery AFF – CNC on www.cnc-aff.fr page 1/12 Rediscovery Each year, around 1,000 films are deposited with the French film archives at the CNC. One of the CNC’s missions is to catalogue these films. During the cataloguing process, workers note the information listed on the film box labels and in the credits at the beginning of the film, if any. For silent films, the first title cards sometimes provide some information, but that is rare. Boxes to be catalogued This initial information is not always correct: a film may be kept in the wrong box or, as was often the case for silent films shown at carnivals, the name of the film may have been changed in order to make it more appealing and a better sell. The Catalogue The films are then reconsidered during a more in-depth cataloguing process, and that is when surprises can occur! That is how, 30 years after they were deposited by a collector, four reels of a film called Drame au Far West ended up being studied by an Archives librarian specialized in John Ford films. He thought he recognized Harry Carey, one of Ford’s favorite actors who played in his silent films. The actor Harry Carey In addition to that first clue, the researcher also seemed to recognize the director’s style: the wide-open spaces, the delicacy with which intimate scenes were filmed, certain shots that were recognizably his work, even the minor roles that brought a certain sense of humor to the story. For example, the scene where the hero understands that he was fooled by the tailor who sold him a nice suit… worn by someone else! Scene from Bucking Broadway « Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure », A Journey of Discovery AFF – CNC on www.cnc-aff.fr page 2/12 Identification By then searching amongst John Ford’s filmography, the researcher discovered that Drame au Far West was actually Bucking Broadway, filmed in 1917 and released in France in 1919, under the name A l’assaut du boulevard. It was indeed the scene for which the film had been named that allowed Ford’s long-lost film to be officially identified. The discovery is all the more important that almost 80% of Ford’s silent films are now considered lost. The next natural step was to restore the film, after searching for any possible rights holders. The ride through New York: the emblematic scene of Bucking Broadway Restoration Despite the very poor quality of the only rediscovered copy, the discovery’s importance was such that it fully justified restoration, whatever the price. In fact, the film was in critical condition: scratches, jumping images, numerous splices, mold, decomposing title cards, etc. At the start of the 20th century, few copies were in circulation and were therefore subject to over-use. “Traditional” restoration could not have fixed all these problems, so the film was restored using new digital methods, in partnership with Centrimage. This was the first entirely digital restoration undertaken in the French film archives. Plan n°32 avant restauration Plan n°32 après restauration « Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure », A Journey of Discovery AFF – CNC on www.cnc-aff.fr page 3/12 Initial Procedure Since the title cards were beginning to decompose, they were taken out of the film in order to prevent contamination; after precisely identifying their positions. Also, since the film copy was one that had been used in France, the title cards were all in French. Their texts were sent for translation to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York, a partner of the CNC on this project, and reintegrated in English in the final copy of the film. French title card A first traditional color printing was made out of the rediscovered nitrate copy, in order to save it right away. Method It quickly became obvious that a reference document was necessary in order to proceed with the restoration. A black and white working copy was therefore made. The images given to the Centrimage laboratory were scanned while immersed, and then a complete editorial script was created with images. By comparing the digital data with the working copy, scanning errors such as inverted images and missing or shortened shots could be identified. Story board created using scanned images Once the story board, which was created off of the digital scan, matched the working copy, they were both invaluable references throughout the rest of the restoration. They were especially helpful during the interactions between the Centrimage team in charge of the restoration, and the Archive researchers. “De-restoration” As the work continued, the story board and working copy that served as reference documents were all the more necessary that automatic restoration techniques were causing anomalies that could have been overlooked otherwise. In order for this “de-restoration” to succeed, each individual shot had to be carefully controlled and manually processed to correct any errors caused by the systematic techniques. « Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure », A Journey of Discovery AFF – CNC on www.cnc-aff.fr page 4/12 Before and after restoration: here, the character on the right has had his head cut off! Another difficulty involved working on a shot without being able to view the whole sequence and return the shot to its context. Thus, light playing over two characters in a medium close- up shot, which could be explained by a hearth fire outside the frame, appeared to be a defect in the image. “Fixing” this image, which had been misinterpreted because it was isolated from the greater story context, might have affected the atmosphere of such an intimate scene. Lighting effect on two shots: not to be confused with a defect Title cards While the images were being restored, the issue of title cards arose. It was decided to insert English title cards, in a font similar to that used in another John Ford film, The Iron Horse (1924), whose graphics were typical of American silent films. The New York MoMA translated the French title cards and another company, Süpor, created the title cards and the inserts used for letters and telegrams. Restored telegram Restored title card « Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure », A Journey of Discovery AFF – CNC on www.cnc-aff.fr page 5/12 Conclusion The project took nine months to complete. The main deteriorations were corrected, although meticulous care was needed to prevent new ones from appearing. The images were stabilized and calibrated in a targeted manner. It would have been possible to carry the restoration even further, but the final goal was to preserve the film’s craftsmanship as it had been originally produced. The film, however, remains incomplete. In fact, according to reviews from back when it was released, about 200 meters of the reel are still missing. A photogram of the scene missing from the restored copy was found in the Ciné-Journal magazine. Photogram of a lost scene In the fall of 2004, the Cinema 08 magazine (which no longer exists) published an article on John Ford and offered a DVD copy of Bucking Broadway. Since then, the film has been regularly shown in festivals around the world, and since the spring of 2008, it has been available to Internet users on the Europafilmtreasures website. Analysis – Cheyenne Harry Rides Again In February of 2003, Eric Loné analyzed his discovery in the Positif magazine, no. 504. “In 1917, John Ford was known as Jack Ford. He still had his full eyesight and had just become an actor under the direction of his older brother, Francis, before he too started directing for Bison 101 and Universal. In 1917, he filmed no fewer than nine films, all of them Westerns. Picture of John Ford « Bucking Broadway: A Rediscovered Treasure », A Journey of Discovery AFF – CNC on www.cnc-aff.fr page 6/12 One screening of Bucking Broadway was enough to prove how gifted Ford already was, although he was only 22. The telling of the story, the quality of the photography and framing, and the editing pace all confirmed the maturity that had already been glimpsed in Straight Shooting. Straight Shooting Written by George Hively, the plot evolves around the cowboy Cheyenne Harry (Harry Carey), who appeared in about twenty films made by Ford between 1917 and 1919. In this film, Cheyenne Harry is about to marry the daughter of a ranch owner in Wyoming. However, the girl chooses a horse dealer instead, and follows him to New York. Realizing that she made a mistake, she asks Cheyenne Harry for help, and he saves her from a bad marriage. The climax of the film was a spectacular horseback cowboy ride down Broadway (John Ford later said in interviews with Peter Bogdanovitch that this scene was filmed in the center of Los Angeles), which was followed by an epic fight on a hotel terrace. The final fight Like in many other Westerns of the same period, the film action is contemporaneous with the shooting period. It was a time of transition, a crossroads between industrial progress and the Wild West: horses and cars shared the road, and cowboys answered the telephone.